The Island
by ScottyBgood
Summary: While on rout home from performing a tour of the south seas, Tori and jade are stranded on a mysterious island. Jade's in a coma, and Tori finds them dependent on a beautiful, and oddly familiar boy. But what secrets does the island hold? What mysteries are hidden in it's tropical beauty? And can she trust this stranger to keep her frenimy alive, even as she falls for him?
1. Part one

Disclaimer: Victorious belongs to someone else, not me. I just borrowed the characters because I had this convenient deserted island. Also, warning, thing get weird towards the end.

:}

Tori didn't know what to think about what was happening in her life. How she'd wound up in that position, lost in so many ways. It had started with a kind of USO tour.

In order to help her name get out there, Tori'd agreed to do a series of performances on small U.S. Bases in the South Pacific. She'd agreed to the tour partially because it would give her a chance to visit our troops, and they could always use the boost in moral, but mostly because she wanted to see the exotic locations. The trip was supposed to be over now, with her safely in a four star hotel, waiting for the long flight home. But what she hadn't counted on was the pilot of the puddle jumper they were taking to the main land from the small island base would insist on beating a storm. Not just a storm, but a cyclone.

Jade said it wasn't worth the risk racing a storm in such a small sea plane. The goth was only there because Mason had convinced her to perform, be Tori's opening act, claiming she owed him a performance due to her missing the Platinum Music awards. And Jade, not trusting the weather any more then she trusted the sailors stranded on that small island, had argued argued that just cause it was called a cyclone didn't make it less dangerous.

But Tori had insisted on going. "Whats wrong, you scared?" Tori remembered telling the goth, even as the world got prematurely dark. It was almost revenge for the way the horror movie lover had made fun of Tori the flight in, when the singer hesitated at seeing how small the sea plane was. Right before Jade reminded her that this base was too far away for a quick helicopter ride, so they'd had to take the plane for this one performance.

They'd flown in without any hassles, finding themselves entertaining a small American military outpost on the island. But now, as they flew away from the storm, Tori was regretting not letting the sailors have the thrill of one more night with them visiting. 'If only they hadn't said how happy they were when the playboy models visited them, or how both girls could rock the magazine.'

Every time Tori had run the numbers, both before and during the flight, the plane outpaced the storm. It should have distanced it, had them safely landed and under cover by the time the storm hit, possibly hours after they'd landed. They should have been safe. But somehow they couldn't make it ahead of the raging winds.

When they lost a wing, and started to plummet, Tori was so sure they were gonna die. When they crashed into the water, having flown lower then expected, and made their way out into the emergency raft, Tori pulling her friend over the dead and mangled body of their pilot, Tori was sure they would join the pilot in the next life. When the storm blew them away from the islands, from the shipping lanes, from anything, Tori was sure they'd become shark food. Yet, for the sake of her companion, she had to keep her hopes up.

"Jade, hold on. It's gonna be okay." The singer said, holding onto the still warm body of her friend. Jade was knocked unconscious in the crash, a condition that didn't change as Tori pulled her out of the water and into the raft. Tori thanked her father for forcing her and Trina to take the lifeguard class, cause it gave her the tools to yank a hundred and twenty five lbs of Jade, plus the extra water weight her cloths had acquired, onto the little raft, while losing strength from the cold and wet. Jade remained unconscious through all the hectic activities that followed, like Tori pulling a life vest onto her and inflating it, or pulling a safety blanket over then to give them some measure of warmth.

Now, as the night slowly passed, and they drifted, Tori hugged the goth to her and both of them to the bottom of the raft. She knew, knew, that if she let the other girl go for any reason, she'd be alone in the raft, assuming that they didn't flip over and drown first. "I know the nice sailors will be looking for us, just as soon as the storm passes. The storms what, category three, four at the most? That can't be that bad." Tori said, trying to reassure her unconscious friend.

Even then, desperate, talking to the unmoving girl in her arms, Tori knew she was lying. She'd heard it over the radio as their now dead pilot was trying to call for help. It turned out the storm was category five, a tropical cyclone as strong as anything that could hit the isolated island. In the Caribbean, it'd have been a hurricane, and near Japan, a typhoon, but just calling it a cyclone made it's power sound deceptively weak. The storm brought disruption, probably flooding and destruction, to whatever islands were in it's path. It'd blown them off course, away from the shipping lanes. They were on their own. Their only hope was that someone was out, away from the main shipping lanes, and would find them and bring them someplace safe. Someplace where the sarcastic girl could get medical attention, and Tori could forget crawling over the body of their pilot as she was struggling to get herself and Jade out of the quickly sinking plane.

Tori was exhausted, fighting for each moment of clarity as the storm lessened, passing them by at last. She needed sleep, but Jade needed someone to watch out for her. Despite the life vest, Jade could well drown if she slipped into the tropical waters. Tori held on, staying awake, talking to the goth about anything she could think of. Of what Robbie was going to do the next time he visited her, or how Cat and Sam were running a business. But time and emotional exhaustion were cruel enemies. Part way through telling Jade about the cute girl she'd set Beck up with, someone he could date while the two of them were off on this mad tour, she faded. It felt like just for a moment.

Tori did remember hitting sand, being on some kind of land, washed ashore by the waves. Groggally she pulled the boat further onto the shore, looking through the early morning darkness to find anyplace they could lay where they'd be safe from the midday suns full power as they slept. She wasn't sure if she found a place, or just collapsed wherever. She just knew that Jade was cold. They'd both been soaked through, were likely going to catch a cold, or worse, and had no idea what kind of natives would be found on this island. Tori hoped she didn't dream about dragging herself next to Jade, and putting her arm around the goth. Or of feeling the girls body expand with each breath, and shiver from the cold. Under her layers of denial, she knew Jade was fading, and she'd be alone.

"Please, Jade don't leave me." She thought she'd said, trying not to drift back unconscious. "You owe me. You've been such a bitch to me, and now we're finally becoming friends. You can't just leave me." Tears flowed, taking the last of Tori's reserve of strength. She hadn't eaten in over a day, she was wet, cold, tired, and she just couldn't take it any more. Slumping on the other girl, Tori repeated "Don't leave me."

Tori woke up, her head hurting, but she wasn't bothered by the sun, or the cold. She pulled a blanket of of her, and gingerly got to her feet. Around her were wooden walls and furniture, with a bad wrapped in some kind of linen.. "Jade?" She called out. The goth was gone. The room she was in had two doors, both open. One led outside, to a balcony encased in bamboo bars. Tori didn't know what was happening or where to go, so on jelly legs she walked towards the bars.

Closer, she could clearly see the bamboo bars were set about s foot apart, all along the balcony, which itself was some kind of walkway around the building. By looking out over the edge of the balcony, She understood, she was in some kind of tree house. The ground was tens of feet below. "There are Tigers in the jungle." A male voice startled her.

Tori turned so fast she almost lost her footing, only standing due to her holding the bamboo bars. As her head cleared, she could see a tall tanned muscular boy with dark brown hair standing with a wooden bowl of something. He was wearing what was probably a loin cloth, but over shorts. "Who?" She managed to get out.

"Sorry, I thought..." He blushed, ever so slightly. "No, I didn't. Here, I brought you something." He offered her the bowl. "I have water when your ready. You were out a while. Exposure dose that to you. Plus the fever. You should be ready for something to eat now. Just, be ready, in case you need to adjust."

"Jade?" Tori asked. "My..."

"She's... Not doing well." He told her. Tori's eyes started to cloud up, a storm of tears threatening to break. "She's stable... for now. But I've had to do something desperate to keep her alive. I don't know if she'll ever wake up." He saw Tori's face, and added "No, I'm sure she will. We just need to give her time."

"Can I see her?" The Latina asked.

"Later, when you're stronger." He insisted. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm Auggie. Thats short for..."

"Augustus." Tori cut him off. "I know that. Don't know how, but I know." She blushed. He was tall, maybe six foot two inches, attractive, maybe just a smidgen older, and seemed to be a perfect gentleman. "How long have you been here?"

"A while." Auggie said. "You should understand, I'm not unhappy to be here. Yea, I was cast away, but I'm comfortable in my jungle home." He looked into her eyes, and his aura was magnetic, pulling her in. There was something familiar about his eyes, but she couldn't place why. He looked familiar, even thought she was sure she'd never met him before that day.

"Tigers?" Tori asked, looking into the island. She thought she'd seen movement.

"A tiger, actually. Just one, but it's here. I never could understand that." The hansom boy said. "There are these islands in the Asian sea, far from the mainland, and tiger grow naturally there. I don't think thats how this one got here though. Nor the dogs that rule most of the land. Not any of the animals who populate this island. Oh, yea, I should point out that I didn't build this house either. I found it, in need of repair, but conveniently here."

"I guess it's a good thing you found us." Tori admitted. She then reached for the bowl. "Please..."

He handed to her. "Let me get you something to drink."

Tori found it full of berries, with some grilled fish of some sort. She didn't question what was there, just ate. It filled her, and when she was done, Auggie was back with a skin full of water. Tori drank heavily, filling herself.

After eating, she looked at her savior. "Tel me the truth, Jade's dead."

"Might as well be." He replied. "But no, she's alive, and will live. There's a place where she can be put into a kind of suspended animation. It's kinda gross, but it works. I've used it once to keep a sailor alive, in the past. But he never woke, and I eventually tried to wake him..." The tall boy fell silent.

"It didn't work?" Tori asked.

"No, it didn't." Auggie repeated. "I didn't know what else to do. But with Jade, I think I can keep her alive, for a long time, until someone comes to rescue us. I don't know."

"Show me, please." Tori said. "I want to believe you. I want to know I didn't lose my almost friend, that I was able to save her."

"I don't think she wanted to be saved." The boy spat. "Sorry, she reminds me of someone. Cruel, reactionary, lashing out at anyone who could be a friend out of fear that she might be vulnerable. The girl I knew, also names Jade, decided if she was miserable, even by her own hand, then everyone else should be too. She was a monster."

"My Jade is.." Tori tried to find something nice to say. "She's opinionated, and mean, and lets be honest, I was so sure this one time she would have buried me in the desert. But she's my friend. I think, maybe, we were getting closer. It's why I asked for her to open for me on this mini tour of the southeaster seas." Tori couldn't even laugh at her own joke. 'or asked mason to get her to open.'

"Okay, humor isn't your strong point." Auggie said, leading her to the center of the tree. "The tree house is build along and around the tree and it's main branches. There are stairs, wrapping around part of the trunk, which is huge. I have no idea what kind of tree this is, but it's big enough to hold the whole house. The top most story holds something..." He stopped again. "You cannot unsee this."

"Show me." Tori asked again. After eating, and drinking her fill, she was feeling a lot stronger. She must have slept off the feaver. Now she was tired, but needed to know.

"You sure?" He asked. "You're still sick. You need your strength. I don't want to upset you. Jade's alive, and I wish you'd take my word for that. But you, your gonna get better, and you need to take things easy for a while. Seeing Jade, how she is now, might not be the best thing for you."

"I can take it." Tori insisted. "That is, unless she's dead. Then, I still need to know. I'm not dying. I can handle the truth. So tell me, show me. I need to know. I know, I'll carry this image with me, but please, for the love of god, show me Jade."

"She's not worth it." Auggie said, looking at the floor. "She's alive. I couldn't let her die, no matter how much I thought she deserved it. Not if it would hurt you." He looked up to see her eyes.

"Please." She said, placing a hand on his well defined arm. With a sigh, he relented.

"Stay behind me unless I tell you otherwise." The tall, muscular boy said. "If I say run, you run. We shouldn't have any problems unless it's feeding." He looked over at Tori. "It's part of the price. I just tell myself they can't feel anything. But it doesn't kill them, she's almost in the same shape she was in back when I dragged her up there."

Tori nodded, and followed him up the stairs. They wound up past the second story, where several rooms lay unused, covered in dust cloths, or were full of random stuff that Auggie said had washed ashore from previous storms. They continued up this unusual spiraling staircase to the top pat of the house. They were just under where the foliage grew thick, and the light that penetrated was heavily shadowed. There was no longer stairs above them to protect them from the weather, just the canopy of the tree. And off to the side, opposite the now much thinner trunk, there was a single unusually wide open doorway. The handsome guy led her through the door into what was the attic of the house.

The room was dimly lit by the outside sunlight, even darker then the stairs had become. The room was hard to see through, beyond even the dark. It was large, almost an open attic, but the view was blocked by the webs. The attic seemed filled with webs and cobwebs. They formed a maze that the two traversed, cautiously moving deeper into the room. Tori looked up to where the roof slanted up to met at a peek, high above them, giving plenty of room for the webbing to fill. As she followed the muscular boy in, she marveled at the number of spiders it must have taken to weave this labyrinth. Then they walked into an open space in the room, and the two occupants became clear. One of them was Jade, wrapped in webbing from her toes to her neck, her head the only thing showing as she hung from the roof, feet dangling just above the floor. The other looked like a ten foot diameter spider, multifaceted eyes watching them both.

Tori waned to run. She needed to, to place as much space between her and that giant spider as she could. But fear froze her to that spot. Fear, and a dark fascination at how peaceful Jade's face looked, bound by the spider's web.

Auggie chose this moment to speak. "She needs a living host to keep her eggs in, but unlike most insects and arachnids who do that, after a while her eggs grow too big to share a host. So she keeps one host alive, occasionally biting them to inject nutrients, and the host only had to incubate the eggs for a while. After thats over, she removes them to place each in their own individual host, and starts again the next season. Jade's her current host. I don't know what happens to the young after they hatch and eat their way out of the other hosts."

"And Jade's okay?" Tori asked, clearly not believing it.

"From what I learned from the journal I found, yea." Auggie told her. "It takes effort to make a host like Jade, so the spider keeps them around as long as she can. Jade could last years. The last one did."

It was all too much for her. Tori ran out of the attic, finding herself a place to throw up the meal she'd only recently consumed. After emptying the contents of her stomach, and whatever else she could force out, Tori slumped down to the floor. The railing had been a descent place to throw up, with her vomit now on the jungle floor. "You okay?" The tall boy asked.

"That spider, it's gonna eat her, right?" Tori asked. "Or one of it's young will?"

"No." He said, smiling a sincere smile. "Jade's safe. I told you, I could never let anything happen to her. Not while you need her."

Tori was now crying again. "I's all my fault. She didn't want to try to fly out in front of the storm. I told her the plane was faster then the storm, that we would outrun it. The storm, it was traveling maybe sixty miles per hour. How'd it overtake us?" She looked to the boy for answers she didn't have.

"Your pilot was probably flying perpendicular to the storm, or at some angle where he wasn't putting enough distance between you and it before it reached you. The storm was about six hundred miles across, with a center of over a hundred. You were caught in the storm, then the strength of the storm, and it was all over." The boy said. "But if he didn't tell you that, then there was no way for you to have known. And I'll agree, you probably didn't want to be stuck on one of those islands after a storm like that."

"How'd you know we came from an island?" Tori asked.

"You mumbled in your sleep." He smiled. "Lets get you something to calm your stomach down. I have things to show you."

he helped tori walk until they reached a room, then he sat her down. She could see that there were poncho's outside the room, one of which he put on. Also, the room inside was noticeably colder, necessitating the poncho. She realized the room was probably the pantry. "The air circulation cools this room down. Kinda like the ice Caves of Idaho. Ever heard of them? Outside of Shoeshone? The shape of the lava tubes cause the winds that blow through to cool down and freeze the water that bubbles up in the caves. Temperatures in the caves on a ninety degree day stay at or just above freezing. Back in the eighteen hundreds, someone figured out how to manufacture ice from observing those caves." He smiled at Tori, only to falter. "Sorry, I forget not everyone is as fascinated by that chiz as I am."

"And this rooms cool because of that?" Tori asked, happy to be sitting. She reached out to pull a poncho on, feeling the warmth. "No, it's fascinating. I'm just kinda distracted." She stopped smiling. "No, still feel guilty. I dragged Jade on this trip, and it's my fault she's hanging there, incubating spider eggs to survive. She will survive, right?" That one question lingered, cause Tori couldn't imagine the spider wanting to keep one subject alive like that. Surly Jade was slowly being eaten alive from the inside, one batch of eggs at a time.

"I'll tell you what." Auggie said. "I'll try to build something to sail us to the shipping lanes, if you agree to be my companion while I'm doing it. Jade'll live at least that long. In the meantime, eat this." He handed her what looked like a small loaf of bread. "Don't laugh, but it's breadfuit bread. Eat it, it'll ease your stomach. Then I want to show you the view from my room."

Tori ate, watching the boy. After a while, her suspicions were rising. He knew too much, but was somehow trapped on this island. 'Is he here by design? Is this some kind of exile location? Maybe he tried something with Jade while I was hanging from that spiders web, and switched us out when she rejected him. Makes sense, cause his Jade sounds a lot like mine. Plus, I get the feeling he's not just projecting his hate onto my Jade.'

But she did agree to go with him to his quarters, or outside of them on the balcony, where she was able to see a lake. "It's beautiful." Tori gasped. The tree was above a waterfall, with the edge of the balcony just protruding over the edge. Tori could look straight down, dozens of feet, to the churning waters. The roar of the falls somehow was diluted by the leaves and branches, fading to a dull roar.

But the banks of the water was what got her. The banks were lousy with flowers and trees and greenery that was thick at the edge of the water. "Is there a way down to the water?" Tori asked.

"It's a bit of a walk, but yea." Auggie replied. "When you're stronger, I'll take you. There are fish in the water, but the eels that used to live there had long ago died out. I think it was a project of the previous owner of the cabin in the trees."

"Then I look forward to being healthy enough." Tori said.

"Lets get you back to your side of the house." He told her. "You'll sleep better there, and I think there are so many things to show you, I don't want you distracted by the falls."

Tori spent the next three days getting her strength back. He had her walking around the balcony every day, getting her exercise. He also had her accompany him to the upper story, where the various stores of things he, or the previous owner, had recovered from the beaches were stored. Tori was amazed at the things there, including a kimono, and several summer dresses. She changed, loving the clean cloths she could wear. In a strange sense, it felt like shopping, with a limited selection, but everything was free. She enjoyed the rush of finding things to wear, to play with, to use as she stayed on the island.

During those nights, Tori was treated to the things that hunted the dark jungle when the sun was down. The dog packs stalking through the trees. They moved quickly, almost patrolling more then hunting, as if they were at war, and didn't wish to lose prime hunting grounds to any of the other dogs, let alone the big cat. The Tiger also stalked through one night. It didn't take long to decide that each group had their own territory, and they overlapped. But all of the predators, the dogs, the tiger, the others who were too small to count yet as a threat to Auggie, they all eyed the house hungrily, while keeping a healthy distance from it. Auggie told her the tiger could jump up to the lower floors. It was the reason he believed the bamboo cage was in place. The tiger wouldn't have the strength to rip it's way through. And from the way it watched her, she felt like it knew that too.

On the third day, I rained, but she didn't worry. Instead, she watched the world turn dark, but the jungle was beautiful in it's own way. Birds didn't fly, not so she could see them, but the flowers in the rain gave the whole world a sweet smell unlike anything she'd ever experienced before. And the water refracted the light that pushed it's way through the canopy, making dark rainbows. It was so unreal.

Then there was Auggie. Tori knew he wanted her. He was a boy, a very handsome boy with the most intense eyes, while she was a girl, and the attraction was there. But he kept himself under control, instead dazzling her with his vast array of useful facts he'd picked up along the way. He seemed to have spent as lot of time learning the most obscure things. Slowly she was finding it harder and harder to believe he was responsible for what happened to Jade. "I'll admit, she reminds me too much of my Jade, but because she's your friend, I would never hurt you." He would insist.

But Tori wondered, was he smitten with her because she was the first girl he'd seen, awake, since he'd been there, or was there really a connection? That thought would resurface again and again as they grew closer.

After four days, he took Tori around the island. First was the small lake, where they went swimming under the warm daylight, then dried off under the suns gentle embrace. Then he showed her the various plants, beautiful to deadly to just useful. He showed her where he'd placed markers to warn him of when he was entering one of the predators known territories. "The other threat is the pigs. Now they aren't as big as many wild pigs, having a major strain of the pacific pigs used by the Polynesians. But there is some European pig in their blood, giving them some size, and aggression. Still, occasionally I trap me one, and I have pork. I make great bacon. Then there are the birds. I found some chickens, wild, and while their eggs aren't as big, I still add that to my food supply." The tall boy told her. He seemed to enjoy pointing things out to her.

Tori was still not sure about the spider, so she asked about it's habits. "The spider is a hunting type spider." Auggie told her. "She's most active during the daytime. But she also hunts mostly the four legged animals. We should be safe as long as we keep our eyes open."

Tori nodded, and learned to watch for signs that the monster spider had left to go hunting. Sometimes it would climb down the tree, others it would lower itself by a strand of webbing. But as the days passed, and Tori found the island to be a dangerous paradise, she learned to habits of the spider. Then, after watching it for a week, she waited until it left to go forage food, and snuck up into it's lair.

Auggie had repeatedly told her never to go there without him, but today the boy had left early to resupply. He'd return that evening with food, meat, and maybe salvage washed ashore from the cyclone. He'd told her "Even thought the storm was a while ago, some stuff will be floating for months before it finds a place to be washed up on the shore. I like to check periodically, just because you never can tell what useful things might wash ashore."

So Tori snuck up the stairs, slowly making sure no one could notice her, despite being alone. She found her way to the attic, and walked in. The low light and abundant shadows were making everything more creepy. Still, she pushed forward, finding her way, until she found where Jade had been hung. The beautiful goth was still hanging there in her cocoon of webbing, only her face showing.

With a trembling hand, Tori reached for the goth. Jade hung there, unconscious, looking dead. Tori was sure she'd be feeling the cold of the girls body, if there was a body left under the mass of webbing. Instead, she felt warmth. 'She's alive.' The singer thought, feeling relieved. "Jade, listen, I'm sorry I haven't been by to visit in a while. I met this guy, Auggie. You'd li… Who'm I kidding, you'd have hated him. He's everything you're not. He's kind, and thoughtful, and not afraid to let people know he cares, and god do I miss you. You have to get better. Wake up. I need you. Auggie hot, and I'd be willing to share. We wouldn't have to be rivals. Please, just wake up." Tori would later admit she was begging.

Jade didn't respond. It took a short while to confirm that the girl was breathing. Like many sleepers, she wasn't using as much air, but she still needed to breath. The webbing around her was so think Tori had to place her hand over the girls mouth to confirm breath. "Probably the only reason we can still see your face." Tori mused.

"Look, Jade I know… I hope you can hear me. I'll find a way, get you out of here. Beck to the safety of the modern world. Please, just don't die on me." Tori felt an impulse, just for a second, for a more caring physical contact. Figuring that Jade would never know, she placed a gentile kiss on the girls head, and wanted to place another one on her lips. Tori resisted, stepping back, hurting at seeing the goth like this.

Tori then made her way out of the attic and down to her room. 'Auggie, please, take me with you when you go out.' She thought. 'There's no one to talk to here.'

:}

Thoughts?' Also, what do you think of the island so far? Or Auggie? Do you think Tori will be rescued, or will they build a boat and escape? And what about that spider?

Okay, now you can read chapter two.


	2. Part two

Disclaimer: Victorious, and Colonel Shay, belongs to someone else, not me. I just borrowed the characters because I had this convenient deserted island. Also, warning, thing get weird towards the end.

:}

That evening, after the boy had returned, Tori asked him something. "Tell me about yourself." she said.

"Not much to tell." Auggie said, shrugging. "I can honestly say I never really lived before I was here. I consider that a whole different life, one I don't know how to explain. One thing, I used to carry just a bit of extra weight, was chubby for a lot of my school life. As a result, I didn't date much. Had trouble relating to people. I escaped into fantasy. But it's not enough to just make chiz up. I got into research, seeing the world though the eyes of the books I read or the websights I visited. I fell in love with the world. Then one day my Jade ruined that for me."

"How?" Tori asked.

"She was so scared of losing whatever the fuck she had, that she made it her business to ruin other peoples days." He said. "She hurt someone I cared about. Bullied them mercilessly. I hated her. Still do. But like I said, I'd never hurt your Jade." he held her eyes with his for just a moment to make the next words count that much more. "Not if it meant hurting you."

After that, he stopped talking as much about himself. He found it easy to focus on her, showing Tori the various beautiful things the island had. The water, that was so clean despite coming from some unknown source. The fish that swam in one of the high lagoons, a rainbow of colors that swam in the wide but shallow waters. Each sight was another moment of breathtaking beauty for her to see. Unfortunately, within a few weeks, he'd run out of special spots to show her. The island was magical, but not infantile.

As the days turned to weeks, Tori found the handsome boy harder and harder to resist. What made it increasingly harder was he wasn't trying to seduce her, just win her. He'd bring flowers, just to brighten her room. He made it a point to show her every spot he'd found on the island. Their days were full of safe little adventures. They'd even scaled a short cliff near the summit of the islands hill, out of reach of every predator that didn't fly except the tiger, and since tbe peek was a distance from the tree line, the tiger didn't go there.

He also was the perfect gentleman. He respected her privacy, but took charge when needed. He looked out for her, showing her everything while carrying whatever weapon he was planning on using to protect her if they ran into any threat while out. He'd carried her home on his back after she'd sprained her ankle, and cared for her the days it took for the mild injury to heal. And he did so while telling her whatever jokes he could think of, laughing at her better jokes, and in general being as cordial company as possible.

Tori also occasionally visited Jade, just to be sure she was all right. The Latina did so on the rare times she was alone, with the spider out hunting. But as Auggie showed her the island, the intervals between visits grew and grew. It was staring to look like Tori might let it slip entirely, eventually. But as uncomfortable as looking at Jade when she was like that was, Tori found she had to keep coming back. And Jade wasn't the only thing starting to come between her and Auggie.

"Tori, babe, I know you don't like being away from the house at night, but from this place you can see the stars. All the stars. We forget their there sometimes, cause we live in a modern world where the city lights are too much to see through. But out here, you have a canopy of stars to see." He told her, having brought her once again to his high point. The summit that was safe from the tiger because it required them to put distance between them and the trees, as well as got through a small tunnel.

"Auggie, I love it here." Tori admitted, out there under the stars, high up on a rock away from the threats. "Both up here under the stars, and on the island." he smile faltered as she shifted where she was laying to look at him. "But I'm not meant to live out here. The island here. Please, I know you haven't been building a boat, but I need one. I need to get back. I-I miss my family. My sister. I want to go home, see them. And Jade, I think we should do something about her."

"She would be dead in days if we removed her from the spiders care." Auggie told her. "If we set out in some kind of boat, we'd need at least two weeks of food, cause we have no idea how far out from the shipping lanes we are."

"Could we go, and bring people back?" Tori asked.

"This island, I kinda see it as our place." The boy replied. "Our little paradise." He looked into her puppy dog eyes. "But I can't deny you anything. I've been busy building an outrigger canoe. The Polynesians crossed thousands of miles of distance with those things. Once it's done, we can go. I'll find a way to bring Jade back too."

"O-okay." Tori said. "You promise?"

"Tori, I always knew you'd leave me." Auggie said, sounding just a little sad. "You said it yourself, you're a modern girl. This island paradise of ours isn't wired to the outside world. I've been building a Dugout canoe."

He was leaning in for a kiss, somethijng tori fealt he should have done a long time ago. She was ready, more so then she liked to believe, despite her misgivings. The kiss got deeper, and before they knew it, cloths shed and they made love under the stars. Auggie worked hard to give Tori as much attention as he could, causing that small part of her that still doubted him to wonder how he learned so much about how girls bodies worked. Still, he drove deep into her, driving her to orgasm, then again, hoping to win her to staying in their romantic paradise.

They lay there, now enjoying the light cover he'd brought to stay warm. Slowly they drifted off, sleeping on the leaf bed he'd made, until the morning light brought them back to the present. "Still want to leave all this behind?" He asked.

"I still want to see my sister again." Tori said. "And we need to get Jade help."

He let out a mighty sigh. "I know you feel you owe her, but she was nothing but horrible to you." He ranted. "She always made you feel smaller. Hell, she tried to frame you for hitting her during an acting exercise."

"I don't remember telling you that." Tori said, now back to feeling suspicious.

"I thought you'd said it while telling me about what your life was before... Who am I kidding." Auggie changed his story. "I was at Hollywood Arts your first year there. I was a senior. I graduated, and took a job on a cruse ship, entertaining. But the entertaining they wanted from me was dancing with the customers, mostly old ladies who didn't have a dance partner otherwise. And lest be honest, the love boat lied. Working aboard a cruse ship can be torturous. And some of the disasters you've heard about, that happened to cruse ships, those made the whole experience that much worse. Plus, I think they were pimping out the crew. And about us, and my experience with Jade, well, I didn't want to lie. It was just, but by the time I realized you were the same girl I saw way back then, who blew us all away when she filled in for her sister, I felt we were already starting over. And I thought you'd wouldn't believe me when I said I wouldn't hurt Jade if you know I'd experienced her."

"Lets get back to the house." Tori said. She felt she needed to process this new information.

They got back to find that the stairway they sometimes used was down. Since the only two who could lower it were them, Tori was suspicious. "Tori, stay here." Auggie said, hefting the small spear he carried. He walked up through the house. "Tori, come here." He called, leading her to a small secure store room. "This room has only one way in and out. Stay here until I find out what happened. Close and bar the door." She would be there for a while.

"Tori, we have to leave." Auggie told her as he rushed back to her safe room.

"What happened?" Tori asked. Was that panic in his voice?

"The counterweight we use to pull up the stairs, it somehow worked it's way free, dropping the stairs. I found the Tiger up in the attic, dead. So was the spider." He looked pale, shaken. "That spider was my constant companion."

"We need to get Jade." Tori protested, trying to get past him to go to her.

"She's dead." He replied. "I don't know if the tiger got her, or maybe the dogs, but she was ripped up, along the legs, like something was trying to break the webbing and drag her to the ground. If it's any consolation, I doubt she felt a thing. I-I don't want you to see that. We need to go. The boat, it's ready. Just help me carry the contents of the pantry to it, so we can get out of here."

"Why are you so anxious to leave?" Tori asked.

"The spider was hunting the dogs." He informed her. "It's the reason we were safe during the day. Now, with the spider and the tiger dead, the dogs will claim this area. We won't be able to use the house any more. We'd be trapped."

Tori helped him grab the contents of the pantry, and they carried it to the boat he's made. Once that was done, they pushed it into the water. It was a double outrigger canoe, stable but heavy. "We paddle during the day, and rest at night." He told the Latina. "With luck, we hit the shipping lanes before too long."

Tori didn't trust him. She wanted to go back to get Jade. Things were moving too fast. At the same time, she did have strong feeling for him. Not sure what to do, but sure he was right about the dangers of staying on the island, she helped him paddle out until the island was a long forgotten memory.

They paddled in that canoe for three days, long enough that Jade would have died if they'd brought her, and still they hadn't found the shipping lanes.

"It's okay, I think we're in the shipping lanes." Auggie insisted. "We just have to wait for someone to find us."

It would be another three cramped days before someone found them. They were picked up by a container ship on it's way to the U.S., locked below deck to avoid causing a problem among the crew, and given cursory exams to make sure they weren't about to die. Three hours later, U.S. navy sea plane grabbed them, taking them back to Samoa where they were swiftly escorted to a waiting medical exam to see how badly they were hurt.

"I want him arrested." Tori told the MP who was escorting them.

"Tori?" Auggie asked. "I thought you loved me?"

"How could I love you?" Tori asked. "I don't know you. Everything you told me was lies. I realized that you never talked much about yourself. I know you hated Jade, and then the stairs conveniently were down? I don't think so. Its too perfect. And just when you had the boat ready to take us, not before, not after. A boat, might I add, that would have been crowded with Jade aboard. I think you left the stairs down to kill the spider, or maybe the Tiger didn't get the spider, and Jade's still there."

"Spider?" The MP asked.

"It's complicated." Tori insisted. "But you knew about where the shipping lanes were, so I think you could have escapes at any time."

"I told you, that was my island." Auggie insisted. "It was for us."

"YOU KILLED JADE!" Tori screamed as she lunged towards the tall boy. The boy, stronger then her, easily held her off until the MP could pull her away.

"I didn't kill her." Auggie protested. "I couldn't. No matter how much I wanted to. How badly I wanted her gone, dead, suffering, I couldn't hurt her." He seemed distraught, desperate for Tori to believe him. It made the MP question his story.

After the medical exam Tori found herself being walked over to a separate room where an officer in a different uniform then the local navy were wearing was waiting to take her statement. It was a complete debriefing, asking her questions about the island, what lived there, how they lived, and mostly about the spider. The spider seemed to be the most fantastical of the story elements, so they spent a lot of time talking about it.

"Miss Vega, you have to understand, no spider works like that." The officer, an air force captain, told her. "Plus, you said it had a leg span of about ten feet, but the largest known spider has a leg span of maybe eleven inches."

"Look, I agree, maybe it was keeping Jade alive until it's eggs hatched, and Auggie lied to me, but either way, he gave her to the spider. He killed her." Tears flowed, a sense of loss far greater then she'd expected consumed her as she thought about the girl she'd left behind.

"We'll see about that." The officer, one lieutenant Kane, said. "We're going to hook you up to a lie detector, and monitor the results. This is a very sophisticated device, years ahead of the one you see on TV. It's gonna help us figure out if you're lying, telling the truth, mad, or maybe you did find yourself on an island this far south with naturally growing bamboo."

"What?" Tori asked. "Wait, Bamboo is only naturally found in Asia." She slapped her head.

"No, we've found species of it as low as northern Australia." The lieutenant said. "Bot never in the islands. Never naturally. And a strain strong enough to make a cage out of, thats worth looking into."

"So if I'm not lying, and I'm not nuts, then you want to examine this island for the plant life?" Tori asked. "What about what he did? That man, that beautiful man, he fed my friend to the spider, or the tiger, or maybe a wild dog..."

"Were there marsupials on the island?" The officer asked.

"No, I don't think so?" Tori replied.

"Islands in this region sometimes have marsupials." Lieutenant Kane explained. "One wolf like animal was actually a marsupial."

"Fascinating, and totally off point." Tori complained. "What are you going to do about Auggie?"

"I think we have what we need." The Air force officer said. "Miss Vega, thanks for entertaining the troops. I saw you in Samoa. I'm sorry to hear about he passing of Miss West. She was an amazing singer."

The one thing that debriefing did do was cause her to rethink her story. She did do everything she'd told them. She was on the island. She was wearing cloths taken from that island, washed up on shore and recovered by Auggie. 'Except we were way off the trade routs, and he had a nice selection of cloths for me to try. Did he really find that chiz, or was he working with someone. Maybe pirates? They'd hide out on the island, in that huge house, and trade shit like the cloths for food and shelter? He did have a lot of that too, and he knew the island well enough to have helped them hide if he wanted too. But Pirates? Wouldn't they kill him? Or maybe he joined them, and they put him on the island?'

"Miss Vega, the Colonel will see you now." One of the MP's, marines, told her.

Tori was walked into another office, this time with a higher ranking air force officer sitting behind a desk. "Please, Miss Vega, have a seat." He motioned for her to sit down next to Auggie. "I'm Colonial..."

"He killed her." Tori said, pointing towards Auggie. "He killed Jade West."

"Tori, please..." Auggie started. "I didn't kill her. You have this all wrong."

"Mister Black, we noticed something from your physical." The officer said, pushing to break up this argument

"Black?" Tori asked, now confused. 'Wait, there's soemthing wrong about the treehouse. It's next to a waterfall, but the jungle around it was so thick. And we had a clearing around it, but the clearing would have caused an open space because of the river. Then there's how close it was tot he edge of the cliff, yet none of it's roots ever pushed out from the cliff. But that close to the edge, there should have been roots. And the noise of the falls should have been deafening, even from my side of the house. What else was wrong, and why is this so important?' Things were starting to cloud in her mind, the more she questioned Auggie, the more she thought about the questions the Lieutenant had asked her. It was confusing, like the island wasn't real. 'But I was there.' She thought.

"I'll ask you once, why does the EKG say your asleep?" The officer asked the young man, pushing forward despite the confused looks on both the survivors faces..

"Tori?" Auggie said. "Tell me you love me." He ignored the officer, seemingly more focused on Tori's response.

"I do, but that doesn't mean I can forgive you for killing Jade. Yes, she was a bitch, but she was my friend. I moved hell and more to keep her alive, and you just go and feed her to a tiger, or maybe the spider ate her? I don't know." Tori said, looking down.

"Everything was supposed to be perfect, but she screwed that up too." Auggie swore at the ceiling. "Fucking Jade."

"I think it's time to wake up." The officer said, and then someone who'd snuck up behind him injected something into Auggies neck.

The boy staggered, having trouble staying on his feet. "You won't be happy with what you've done." He says. "I was made to make you happy. She can't show you love like I can." The tall boy had dropped to his knee, and was shrinking. His body shifted, flowing into the nearly naked form of Jade West. But Auggie wasn't the only thing to fade the cloths they both were wearing also ran and faded. Only the cloths the Navy had given them stayed, the cloths crafted from the plats on the island, or that Auggie had found washed up before Tori arrived faded like the evening sun.

"Whaaaa?" Tori asked, totally confused. She hugged the navy jacket they'd given her around herself for dear life, not yet ready to be embarrassed by her near nudity.

"Miss Vega, I'm afraid what I'm about to tell you has to stay between us." Colonial Shay said.

"H-How?" Tori asked.

"We believe Miss West somehow caught a rare disease." The Air force officer explained. "Or maybe she somehow drew it to her, in a moment of need. Either way, it's something we've known about for years. We just don't understand it."

"Go on." Tori said, feeling happy she'd put on the navy provided shirt. It was her only clothing right now.

"Some people get infested with something unnatural, we think it comes from Australia. We can't control it, so we just learn to recognizer it and cure it. Left untreated, it could cause all kinds of problems. But honestly, a whole island, thats the largest manifisation we'd ever heard of. If she didn't represent such a monumental threat, I'd have loved to have found the island, seen how she'd populated it." He looked at the sleeping form of Jade. "She should wake up soon." The officer said. "But as long as she stayed asleep, what she pulled from the dreamtime, crafted in her mind, was real. Even that guy."

"Everything?" Tori asked.

"It's why no one starved eating the food from that place." The fatherly officer said. "You've had real food recently, so you should be fine. And yes, the wild dogs could have hurt, even killed, you."

"C-could I get pregnant from him?" Tori asked. "Dream Auggie?"

"If you do, we'd love to study the fetus." He replied. "We have no idea what to expect, but most likely you'd have her child. That guy was a part of her. And from what you said, and what we observed, he hated her, that much was clear."

"Why?" Tori asked.

"That you'll have to figurine out yourselves." the colonel said. He dropped a cloth over jade to cover her naked form.

Jade opened her eyes, clearly confused. She pushed herself up, arms length from the floor, and looked around as she shifted into a sitting position. She held the cloth over her, giving her some measure of modesty. "Miss West, welcome back." The officer said. "With luck, the dreamtime infection is gone. But the further you get away from the part of the world, the better."

"Tori, I dreamed we were on an island, and we..." She shut up, not sure what to say. "We were rescued?"

"Tell you what." Tori said. "Why don't you tell me about your dream, and I'll tell you how we made it here."

Later, Tori would confirm that the entire island wasn't real. Colonel Shay told her it was "The largest manifestation of this type ever heard of. We want to do more research, but she seemed to have pulled through and recovered."

"This happens often?" Tori asked.

"It's incredibly rare, and we don't know what causes it. But once it's gone, it's usually gone." The officer said. "Lucky for you she wanted you to survive that deeply, cause from what we got during the debriefing she didn't care if she made it."

"How'd you debrief her?" Tori asked.

"We have a drug that puts her in an altered state, kinda like hypnosis." He said. "That way, she can remember her dream better."

"I have one question for her." Tori said.

"It's not ethical for me to let you ask." He said. "But if we asked the question, maybe we can give you her answer."

"Auggie loved me, from the start." Tori explained.

"Jade loves you too, to the point where she wanted to replace herself with the man of your dreams." Colonel Shay said. "By the way, what color were his eyes?"

Tori froze. She'd looked into those eyes a thousand tomes, but somehow she never register there ocean blue shade. "How'd I never notice?" She asked.

"I think you always knew who he was." The officer said. "But your mind wouldn't let you believe it, cause then how did it all happen? I think thats the thing you need to think about. And Tori, Jade's been through a major event. When you take her home, be gentle.

Tori felt lucky. The military was replacing the cloths she and jade had lost, as well as some of the other possessions. Other things had been in storage in Samoa, and were now on their way back to the u.s. with the girls. Tori would soon talk to her mother, and through that contact let the gang know she was alive and well. They would have to catch up at school, but it was such a small price to pay for being alive.

"The sooner I get Jade away from this part of the world, the better." Tori repeated. "Just, make sure the weathers clear for the twenty plus hour flight home."

The sailor nodded, and helped her load their new stuff onto the car that would be taking them to the airport. Jade was in the back already, covered in a warm blanket, being treated like she was still sick. Tori would never know if she was inside Auggie the whole time, or if the spider really did bite her in the stomach daily to inject nutrients into her. 'probably both.' she decided. It suited Jade better.

'You know, Jade, you could have just asked me out on a date." Tori said as they got into the car.

"What?" Jade asked. To the goth, it was all a surreal dream. A beautiful dream that had netted her Tori as a girlfriend. Even if it had happened in the middle of a nightmare. Still, she was awake now, and thought she'd sleep soon enough, she'd wake up to a future where she had a girlfriend, a recording contract, and a future. The contract was because their time lost gave the record company an excuse to push both girls hard when they got back. Both would be recoding a few songs for pear tunes as soon as possible, to take advantage of the publicity.

"Nothing." Tori assured her, holding her hand. 'I wonder if we can get Auggie back for when we want to start a family?'

Tori would have a long flight back to Los Angeles to think about that. A long flight full of dreams about their future. A long flight full of talking, and holding hands, and making up for lost time. The experience on the island was real, and to Tori it was significant. Now she understood, jade was her girlfriend. They'd always had that connection. And to tori, it was the beginning of the next chapter in their lives.

:}

I was gonna post it as one chapter, one long one shot, but decided that ten thousand words was a bit much. I'm not a good enough writer that you'd sit through that much reading for this story. I hope you enjoyed the weirdness. Now that it's out of my head, we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Also, thoughts, reactions, other feedback, please feel free to give me a review. It's what that button, slash open space slash whatever is for. Give it a sense of purpose, and review.


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